1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an electrochemical storage cell with at least two chamber (an anode chamber and a cathode chamber), separated by a solid electrolyte, for the accommodation of the reactants, at least one of the chambers being divided into a reaction chamber adjacent to the solid electrolyte and at least one supply chamber shielded against both the solid electrolyte and the reaction chamber.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In one known storage cell of this kind there is provided between a supply chamber and the reaction chamber a flow-limiting device which limits the flow of reactant from the supply chamber to the reaction chamber. The purpose of this arrangement is to prevent too rapid a reaction of the two reactants in case the solid electrolyte becomes damaged. In such an event, the entire reaction enthalpy of the reactants is converted into heat. This leads to a considerable temperature rise if the reaction is fast and, in particular, this temperature rise is steep when storage cells with small heat-radiating surface are involved. The consequence thereof would be either a severe increase of the vapor pressure of one of the reactants, causing the cell to burst, or the destruction of the housing due to the increased corrosion intensity at elevated temperature, thus allowing the reactants to escape from the storage cell.
In the known storage cell a small opening between supply chamber and reaction chamber is provided as a flow limiting device. The size of this opening has been selected so that sufficient reactant flow from the supply chamber to the reaction chamber is possible in normal storage cell operation while higher flow rates are restricted.
It is a disadvantage here that the size of the opening must be exactly matched to the respective size of the storage cell and its rated capacity and that an opening so matched does not permit a briefly increased reactant flow, as would be desirable, for example, to cover demand peaks for short periods of time. Beyond this, in case the solid electrolyte becomes damaged, the chemical reaction of the reactants will continue until the reactants are completely consumed. This, particularly in heavy duty storage cells containing large amounts of reactants and having a small heat-radiating surface, can ultimately lead to undesired temperature increases.